The advantage of using the Subscriber Manager for Telegram plugin to link to your private Telegram channel or group to a subscription product is you can generate recurring income. This is because a Subscription product can automatically renew, charging your customer on a recurring basis to maintain their access or membership in your channels or groups.
Note: In order to use this option, you will need the Pro version of Subscriber Manager for Telegram, as well as either WooCommerce Subscriptions or Flexible Subscriptions by WP Desk.
By linking a channel or group to a product, purchasers of the product will be added (via an invite link) to the Telegram channel or group. This process is described in more detail in the Checkout and Activation section of these support documents.
You can link a private channel or group to any Simple or Simple subscription WooCommerce product. For linking channels or groups to a Simple product, see the support article Link a Channel or Group to a Simple Product.
Open an existing product for editing, or create a new product. Scroll down to the Product data section of the page. Ensure the Simple subscription type is selected. The Telegram Access tab should be visible.
Link Private Channels or Groups
To link your private channels or groups to a Subscription product, click in the Select Channels/Groups box and choose the channel or group name created when retrieving the ID’s in the settings step of these support documents. You can link multiple channels or groups to the product. To do so, click again in the Select Channels/Groups box and select another channel or group name.
Additional Settings for Subscription Products
Subscription Manager for Telegram includes additional settings for Subscription products you may find useful. This includes the option to immediately remove users upon cancellation of their subscription. In general, with WooCommerce Subscriptions, when a user cancels their subscription before the subscription period ends, the subscription status becomes “pending cancelation”. This simply means the subscription won’t renew at the end of the current period, but users have paid for the full period, and therefore continue to have access to the service or product they signed up for.
In some cases you may want to have users removed immediately. An example of this is when providing a refund if they cancel within “x” number of days after an order. For example, if you setup a monthly subscription, and offer a refund if they cancel within 7 days of ordering. By default, WooCommerce Subscriptions would allow access until the end of the month, even if you give a refund per your policy. These settings optionally allow you to immediately remove the user from the channels or groups if they cancel.
- Immediate removal on cancellation: Check this box to enable this option. As described above, users will be immediately removed from channels or groups if they cancel their subscription within the Cancellation cut-off days setting.
- Cancellation cut-off days: This setting becomes active when the Immediate removal on cancellation option is enabled. Enter the number of days from the time an order is placed that you want users to be immediately removed from the private channels or groups. Enter a value larger than your subscription period to always remove users immediately upon cancellation. Entering a zero value has the same effect as disabling the option.
Note: Even though users may be immediately remove, refunds are not automatically issue (if this is your policy), and must be done manually either within the WooCommerce settings or with your chosen payment gateway provider.
When Members Are Removed
The plugin ties Telegram access to the subscription’s status. Here is exactly when a member is removed:
- Active — full access. Renewals continue membership uninterrupted; the plugin does not re-issue invite links on renewal.
- Pending cancellation — access is kept by default. The customer has paid through the current period, so they keep access until it ends. The member is removed early only if Immediate removal on cancellation is enabled and the cancellation falls within your Cancellation cut-off days.
- On hold — no-op by default. On-hold usually means a renewal payment is being retried, so the member keeps access. To remove members after a prolonged hold, set the Remove after N days on-hold option (see below).
- Cancelled — the member is removed.
- Expired — the member is removed.
Removal always uses smart multi-subscription protection: a customer is only removed from a channel if no other active order or subscription still grants them access to it.
Refunds: refunding a subscription’s order doesn’t remove the member. Pro follows the subscription’s status, not the order, and WooCommerce Subscriptions doesn’t end a subscription because its order was refunded. To end access, cancel the subscription as well; the member is removed as described above. Refunding one-off products works differently: see Refunds and cancelled orders.
Removing members after a prolonged on-hold
The global Remove after N days on-hold setting lets you remove a member if their subscription stays on-hold too long (for example, past your payment-retry window). When a subscription goes on-hold, the plugin schedules the removal that many days out. Reactivating the subscription — or its being cancelled or expiring — cancels the pending removal automatically. Leave it at 0 (the default) to never remove on-hold subscribers. See Additional Plugin Settings.
Using Flexible Subscriptions by WP Desk
If you use Flexible Subscriptions instead of WooCommerce Subscriptions, the setup is identical. Create a Flexible Subscription product type, open the Telegram Access tab, and assign your channels — the same way described above for WooCommerce Subscriptions products.
The plugin detects Flexible Subscriptions automatically. All subscription lifecycle features — automatic removal on cancellation, smart multi-subscription protection, and access cut-off controls — work the same way.
For a detailed walkthrough including supported product types and how access management differs internally, see Using Subscriber Manager Pro with Flexible Subscriptions.
Variable Subscription Products
Variable Subscription products let you offer different Telegram channel access per variation. Each variation has its own channel selection, removal-on-cancel toggle, and cancellation cut-off days settings.
This works with both WooCommerce Subscriptions (variable-subscription) and Flexible Subscriptions (fsb-variable-subscription) product types.
For the full variable product setup guide, see Link a Channel or Group to a Variable Product.